Pastoral

By Nevil Shute

World War II pilot Peter Marshall leads the most successful bombing crew at his airbase, having survived an unusual number of extremely dangerous missions over Germany. However, when Peter falls hopelessly in love with an attractive WAAF officer—one who insists that wartime duties should take precedence over emotions—his concentration begins to suffer. Soon it looks as though his perfect run of successful missions may be at risk—along with the lives of Peter and his men—unless she can be persuaded to relent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307474148

Reviews for Pastoral

[rbeffa_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked it, although I was a bit disappointed.Nevil Shute's stories aren't like everybody else's stories. He spends a lot of time setting the story and characters up with a lot of detail that modern readers might find tedious and a little boring. If there is one thing he does not do it is to jump right into the action. He lets you really get to know the people in his books. Pastoral is very much this way, with this story about a British Wellington Bomber pilot and his everyday pastoral life around the air base, eventually finding himself falling much too quickly in love with a WAAF and how that plays out. He has discovered a love of fishing so you get a LOT of that, but also the interactions and relationships with his own air crew and others. A lot of day by day this is how life goes stuff and then there are the dramatic moments (2 big ones). Love in the time of war. A bittersweet romance pretty much drives the story. I think a book like this would appeal to someone who has enjoyed "Foyle's War" on television.The disappointment for me here was how the pilot more or less shoved a relationship onto the WAAF signals officer. He was obsessed and guilt tripped the woman into restarting a relationship that she had tried to cool off. Not quite a "marry me or else" but pretty close. My sympathies here clearly lay with the woman and my feelings about the pilot did almost a complete reversal into the dislike category.Oh, there's a nice sweet touch at the very last couple of paragraphs of the book that made me smile. I suppose this is a little spoilery, but someone, who we can surmise is the author, steps into the story for the last scene.

[jbarringer-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was a bit annoyed at the overall plot- girl gets bullied into marrying a pilot during WW2- but I suppose back in the 40's and 50's the story might have been received a bit better. Otherwise, this was a good book, and reminded me a lot of the series Foyle's War. Nevil Shute is the author of A Town Like Alice, as well, and I really liked that one, so I grabbed Pastoral when it turned up on the community free books shelf. The copy I read was smoke damaged, as if it survived a housefire or spent a long time too close to a chimney. This fit with the book rather well, actually. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romantic stories, WW2 historical fiction, books about flying and aircraft, or books by lesser-known classic authors.
If you enjoyed A Town Like Alice, the TV series Foyle's War, or books by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, you might like this book.

[tadad_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you know me, you know I'm rather a fan of Nevil Shute's books. I enjoyed this one as well, although there are several of his others I prefer. Pastoral is a rather straightforward and charming love story set against the backdrop of World War II. It doesn't hit you the way that something like Requiem for a Wren — another of his tales with the same setting — does, which may be good or bad, depending upon whether you want a pleasant story or something that delivers a bit of a visceral blow.

[seoulful · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best fiction books of WWII. A very young pilot and a very young signals officer fall in love on an English airbase. The trauma of romance in the midst of war is beautifully told. All the details of flying and life on an English airbase are authentic but do not detract from the ongoing plot.